a family united in being grateful for AB

there have been some pretty significant changes around here over the last couple of months. the most surprising has been neil's brand spanking interest in cooking. at first it was basically forced upon him due to my new less than human work hours. i wrote down some recipes and he begrudgingly followed them to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour. he did alright, too. but he just wasn't into it. until today.

we went to J and Noelle's for thanksgiving. good times were had by all, but i must note that the death of my mom also resulted in the death of my favorite holiday. i no longer yearn for a good quality thankful circle. i went for the food and while good times were obviously had, i was just not into it. until today.

somehow we decided that we should recook the whole feast today. it is shocking to me that This is what we are both into. neil got bird and i got sides and leftovers. neil settled upon Alton Brown's roasted turkey recipe. while we all know AB is a culinary genius, maybe some of you didn't know that if we were to meet Alton, Neil would keep a very close eye on me. i like alton; i a lot like.

so, there was overnight brining in a cooler.



the rinsing of the brine. neil may or may not have been singing to the turkey at this point:

is this how you are supposed to hold a turkey?

the patting dry:
a mix of butt-stuffins. onion, apple, cinnamon, all microwaved and then shoved where the sun don't shine with rosemary and sage but neil forgot the sage so just rosemary. sorry alton.
matilda found the whole thing incredibly fascinating and did her best to trip neil and steal the turkey.
moose watched the perimeter. no way someone was going to come in and steal this turkey.
butt stuffins:
the gibbly niblets and some aromatics were put at the bottom on the roasting pan for gravy fixins.
i doubt AB's turkeys look like this before they go in the oven.



holy crap look what neil did. he made a damn yummy turkey. and i am painfully full. again.
i have to say i am officially completely over the whole thanksgiving flavor profile. and we have plenty of turkey left, just like we planned. oops.
so now comes my part. what can we do with all of this turkey that will taste nothing like thanksgiving for another 364 days? stock is simmering on the stove. we are not casserole folks, as there are but two of us. first order of business is some kind of turkey mulligatawny soup for when it snows sunday. and i saw a recipe for turkey pad see ew that sounded kind of interesting. feel free to share your leftover recipes in the comment section. bonus points if it is healthy. extra bonus points if you are alton brown and you want to just come over and hang out in the kitchen with me. i mean us. us, damn it.

grrr argh.

on sundays i get to think for myself again. i spend tuesday through saturday listening to other people, trying to figure out the Tigi color line, pretending i am not terrified of cutting hair, settling disputes between coworkers, sweeping, and fetching hot tea. i do other stuff, too. but right now, this is the blur of my memories for the week. as previously blogged about, we start The Sunday with The Walk. poor neil. that is when my mind starts going big...the plans, the theories, the countless observations. it is an hour walk. that is a lot of time....if you are neil. for me it goes by like a blur:

what will the floor plan be for the third floor when we pop the top on our house in 5000 years? (unresolved due to the fact that we are not architects. current plan is to pretend we are in a sitcom and try to befriend some architects for free advice). should we make french onion soup for dinner tonight? (simmering on stove as i type). can we do no presents but maybe lots of baking for christmas? (yes). do you think matilda will be pulling at the leash until her last breath? (probably and why so morbid?). why do i love living here so fucking much? (answered and unanswered over and over again).


this morning we took the pups for The Walk in quite a few inches of snow. first of all, they plow the path around the lake when it is below freezing on a sunday! likey! anyways...on our way home, i saw a guy shoveling his walk and i declared that i loved it. i loved seeing that guy doing exactly what we needed to do. we have something in common with him, just because we live here. no matter what, in Denver, on any day, i have something in common with every person i encounter....the totally unpredictable, constantly changing, and stunningly beautiful weather of Denver. we love it here. we know it is a very well kept secret. and we are nice to each other when we talk about it. also likey.

and that is really it. it's the nice. it's not the weather. every city and town is what it is. the question is how the people within the city manage themselves within it. people here are kind, thoughtful, and throw out a hefty "good morning" at the lake no matter how cold it is. in san francisco, i'd be lucky to even get a bit of eye contact on a sunny 72 day. and in mill valley, i always felt lucky if i didn't get run over in the whole foods parking lot. why do i love it here? i'll have more for you next sunday, right after i figure out what color to paint the guest room and why Firefly got canceled after only one season when it was just about the best tv ever. i have a lot on my plate.